Folks on the extreme left and extreme right share at least one trait in common; they can only hold and process a single black and white belief on any given subject. When anyone tries to inject a shade of gray or one of those nasty “nuances” into one of their certainties, they react with suspicion and anger.

Of course we see this most when the issue of Iraq comes up. Those on the far right believe that “if we don't fight them there, we will have to fight them here, in our own streets.” That's complete and utter nonsense, of course, but believe me, they believe it.

I got a taste of lefty anger last week when I had the audacity to suggest that Iran may be doing to the US in Iraq exactly what the US did to the Soviets in Afghanistan. Specifically by making sure Iraqi insurgents have the gear they need to blow up our armor vehicles and shoot down our helicopters.

Yep. I said that, and oh my! The emails poured in. How dare I!.

How dare I what?

Well, how dare I provide aid and comfort to the war-mongering Bushies! “That's just what they want us to believe,” the lefties whined. They want us to believe the Iranians are supplying Iraqi insurgents, to justify attacking Iran. And I fell right into that right-wing trap.

Right?

Ah, no, not right -- and not left either. Both sides are
missing the point. One side sees black, the other sees white. I see
gray.

Let's dissect the matter:

Question: Does the Bush administration want to attack Iran?

Answer: Does a bear crap in the woods? Sure they do. Fueled by Neocons
and Israeli interests in Congress (can you spell Lieberman?) they'd
love to bomb the crap out of Iran. Just as they believed attacking Iraq
would yield longterm benefits for the region, they now believe that
knee-capping Iran now would end Iran's regional ambitions.

Question: Well, are they right?

Answer: No. Attacking Iran would not only not yield any benefits but
would simply kick open another Pandora's box of very ugly realities.
And then we'll be talking about how to “get out of Iran,” too. Because,
you see, the Iranians live there. And they will still live there long
after the dust kicked up by westerners settles. Iran's place in the
Middle East of the future can only be decided by themselves and their
neighbors. Anyone who believes the West can force such an outcome
clearly has no grasp whatsoever of the history of that region, the
religion & culture that underpins everything, or the people that
live there.

Question: Are the Iranians supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents?

Answer: Duh! Lefties need to understand that, just because Bush says
it, does not automatically mean it's not true. Even a broken clock is
right twice each day.

Imagine it this way. What if you woke up one morning and discovered
that Iran had bombed, invaded and occupied Mexico. Iranian troops were
stationed along the US Mexican border and the President of Iran was
making threats against the US. Do you think, just maybe, the CIA would
be slipping guns-n-stuff to anti-Iranian Mexican insurgents? Of course
they would. So, of course the Iranians are. The sooner the US can be
convinced to leave Iraq the better for Iran. And the fastest way to do
that is for Iran to play the same role in Iraq that the US played in
forcing the Soviets to quit their occupation of Afghanistan. And that's
precisely what the Iranians are doing.

Question: So, does that mean the US should attack Iran?

Answer: Of course not. Attacking Iran would be no more justified than
if the Soviets had attacked the US for providing helicopter killing
Stinger missiles to Afghan insurgents.

Question: So what is the right response to Iran's behavior?

Answer: That question brings me back to the first question and answer –
that only Iran's neighbors can affect Iran's behavior. We saw the first
indications of just how that would work last week. It may have appeared
to those wearing political blinders to have been an unrelated matter.
But in fact it was arguably the most important thing that happened in
the region this month – or, for that matter, any month lately.

It happened, not in poor beleaguered Iraq, or Mulah-run Iran, but in filthy-rich Saudi Arabia.

Last week the Saudis,
not exactly known for making bold diplomatic moves, suddenly reached
down into Palestine, grabbed waring Fatah and Hamas leaders by the
scurfs of their necks and dragged them to Mecca for a sit-down.

Why?

The Saudis have had a good thing going for nearly century, selling
their oil to the West. But they realized that the growing tide of
instability around them – some of which they had financed -- is getting
out of hand. Sunni and Shia are increasingly facing off in
what many believe may be the beginning of a regional civil war,. And
kind of regional instability would directly threaten the Saudis sweet
(crude) deal.

CAIRO -- Egypt
is the Arab world's largest Sunni Muslim country, but as a writer once
quipped, it has a Shiite heart and a Sunni mind. In its eclectic
popular culture, Sunnis enjoy a sweet dish with raisins and nuts to
mark Ashura, the most sacred Shiite Muslim holiday. Raucous festivals
bring Cairenes into the street to celebrate the birthdays of Shiite
saints, a practice disparaged by austere Sunnis. The city's Islamic
quarter tangles like a vine around a shrine to Imam Hussein, Shiite
Islam's most revered figure. The growing Sunni-Shiite divide is roiling
an Arab world as unsettled as at any time in a generation. (More)

So, after years of looking the other way and paying protection money to
radical, anti-Israel groups, the Saudis decided it was time had come to
send the dogs of war to obedience school.

First of all, the Saudis have far more reasons to fear Iran than the US
does. And it would not be the first time in recent history that Iran
and Syria made trouble in Palestine that resulted in regional misery.
Finally, Hamas gets its money and arms from Iran, and it has been Hamas
fanning the flames of a Palestinian civil war.

I have no idea what the Saudis actually told the two warring factions, but I bet it went something like this:

The Saudis to Hamas leaders: “You guys have had it pretty easy. Iran
sends you what you need when you need it. Meanwhile the West has
embargoed the Palestinian government since Hamas won elections. That
cut off western aid to Fatah, making them easy pickings for your
Iranian-armed Hamas fighters. We Saudis can, if we must, provide Fatah
with all the money and arms it needs. Is that what you want? A full out
civil war with a well-equipped and financed Fatah? Because that's what
you're going to get unless you knock it off.”

The photo-op that followed the Saudis sit-down showed Fatah and Hamas leaders kissing. The
next move will be Iran's. Do they keep egging Hamas on to undermine any
form of secular, moderate Palestinian government? Or do the Iranians
back off? That ball is not in Iran's court. The Saudis have more oil
and more money than Iran. And the Saudis have warehouses full of modern
US-military gear. Should the Saudis decide to back Fatah they could
turn it into a formidable force. (And this time the Israelis would
approve – maybe even help.)

JERUSALEM -- Leaders of the
rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement to form a
coalition government Thursday in an effort to end months of factional
fighting and lift international sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led
administration....The agreement, which followed talks hosted by Saudi
Arabia in the holy city of Mecca, was signed by Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, and Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader
of Hamas. (More)

What's really important to learn from that event is this: It was
the Saudis, not the American fleet, that changed the equation for Iran
-- and in ways the Bush administration could only dream of.

It's a valuable lesson, for everyone involved. The west's only
strategic interest in the region is oil. But those who actually live in
the Middle East have much broader and far more personal interests at
stake. For the peoples of the Middle East it boils down to a stark
choice: peaceful co-existence, growing trade and growing economies, or
life on-end in a Mad Max world.

Only once the West, particularly the US, butts out will that choice
come into high relief. The Saudis clearly get it – at least those
Saudis who benefit most from regional stability. (Eventually ordinary
Saudis will get it too, and that won't be good news for the corrupt
phony “princes,” now running that sandpit of a country. Of course, when
that day arrives, the US will not like that particular display of
“democracy ” in Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, it will be a matter for
locals to decide, not Exxon.)

So, let's review.

Is Iran sending military assistance and anti-aircraft missiles to Iraqi insurgents? Almost certainly.

Is the Bush administration lying to us again? Almost certainly.

Does that mean Iran is not sending military assistance to Iraqi Insurgents? No.

Does that mean we should attack Iran? No.

What it does mean is that the sooner we get our troops out of Iraq, the
sooner Middle Easterners will have to stop blaming others for their
dysfunctional societies and get down to addressing the
religious/cultural anachronisms that underlay almost all of it.

No longer able to blame the Great Satan they will have to “get” what
the Saudis got. The choice facing Muslims in the Middle East is between
life in dark ages, or peace, cooperation and progress.

Take it or leave it.

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I am not sure Iran needs to supply weapons to its allies in Iraq since the US is supplying Iran's allies, like the Badr brigade, with weapons in order to foment sectarian strife. It is also a stretch to claim

"Iran may be doing to the US in Iraq exactly what the US did to the Soviets in Afghanistan."

Kind of an apples and oranges comparison, I think. Iran might wish they could, but they can't.

The Iranians do no add 'milk' to the tea they cons
"They (the United States) were misled, and their last move in Najaf shows how the smart Iranians are leading the Americans deeper into Iraqi sands," Jaafar al-Jawadi, a political analyst from Baghdad told IPS.

"I do not really understand what those Americans are doing because now they are just like an elephant in a china shop, and everything they do is terribly wrong as if they are committing suicide,"

Is there a better way of describing the American involvement in Iraq - in the region?? This is one BIG experiment that has gone wrong from Day-1!

Bush has not attacked IRAQ - he has raped American Democracy! Who in America can see this happening? What will it take to get America to STOP this supposed role of Resource Saviour ..... not for the WORLD but for The United States of America?

Ask the orphans and widows on both sides of the equation.... and there will be countless dead bodies... mangled bodies and blood drenched - Flag Draped Coffins that will answer this question in the near future.

The Americans and their Allies are there for the Cake and Confetti. This cake is bitter and tastes of death.

Iraq as America's Afghanistan
"Iran may be doing to the US in Iraq exactly what the US did to the Soviets in Afghanistan."

And if Afghanistan was Russia's Vietnam, maybe it's come full circle. With Russia nominally aligned with Iran, you could say Russia is getting its revenge for how we fomented the mujahadeens in Afghanistan.

I always look forward to reading Stephen Pizzo. You can count on him to find a perspective on an issue that no one else hs.

Imperialism 101
Mr. Strong seems to be correct. Mr. Pizzo's problem seems to be that he has forgotten why the US corporate state is in the ME in the first place. ME countries are dysfunctional because Western imperialist nations keep them dysfunctional, either by controlling their governments through puppet regimes or destabilizing their countries when nationalist and even democratic, governments might be gaining some independence. This effort at maintaining economic and political hegemony over these peoples is known as imperialism.

Destabilizing the ME is in the interest of US and European imperialism. It is this hegemony that anti-imperialists (some who may also refer to themselves as "leftists") need to be in opposition to. All ME states and peoples are victims of these imperialist machinations, and have been for a couple of centuries at least. Condemning the victims and lumping them into the same categories as the imperialist transgressors who not only cooked up the stew of problems, but keep stirring the pot, is not something that anti-imperialists should be hypocritically focusing on.

All Iraq's ME neighbors, quite naturally, have agents in Iraq working at different levels to attempt to protect and defend their varied national interests from US attempts to destabilize, not only Iraq, but Iraq's neighbors as well. Iran, like all others in the area, has the right and obligation to supply weapons to its allies in Iraq in order to defend itself from American hegemonic ambitions in the region. It is the US that invaded the region, not Iran. Apparently, some self-righteous "leftists" think that ME states have no rights to defend themselves against American regional aggression.

Having said this, it is highly unlikely that Iran is able to supply much weaponry at all, and there is very little credible evidence of this. Mr. Pizzo certainly does not supply any. As Mr. Strong has noted, Saudi has also been implicated in supplying money and weapons to Sunnis, which have been used against American troops, but this matters little because the Saudis are American dependents. But the fact is, that most of the weapons supplied to Iraqis, Shia, Sunni, Kurd, are being supplied by the US. Yes, the US is supplying the guns and bombs to Iraqi factions that are in turn using them to kill US soldiers, as well as Iraqis. This is hardly new. Black ops are an Anglo-American tradition. Propaganda and false flag operations are a part of the game plan. Imperialism 101 - destabilize, divide and conquer. Lets stop blaming the victims.

the enemy of my enemy...
pizzo is right, of course: the shame of it is he has to explain how this kind of thing works to the historically-illiterate. iran is bleeding the US like the US did to the USSR in afghanistan or china did the US in vietnam or the US/UK did the nazis by supporting the french resistance and italian partisans against mussolini--it's the oldest form of war-as-a-continuation-of-diplomacy. difference here is that iran is threatened by the US in a way that the US in afghanistan wasn't.

dirtier still, however, was NATO's 'stay-behind', ready-made resistance to the ever-imminent soviet invasion of western europe in the form of operation GLADIO; when the invasion never came, GLADIO staged attacks and blamed the 'terrorism' on the local communist parties.

what we have in iraq is a nasty GLADIO-cum-foreign supported insurgency melee, in my opinion: the US/UK have been caught running their own 'insurgency' war while iran continues to support SCIRI....

Pizzo lacks evidence
Pizzo lacks evidence, so how can he be "right". Bush also lacked evidence that Iraq possessed WMD. Of course, he was propagandizing, Pizzo is merely speculating. Believing something is so, and stating it is so, does not prove it is so. Mr. Pizzo proves nothing.

In fact, what evidence exists, proves the US is manufacturing evidence against Iran in order to justify an attack on the country. Real evidence of any substance is, as usual, lacking.

The historically-literate "explain how this kind of thing works" with evidence and documents, not mere speculation. Mr. Pizzo's interesting ideas need to be better supported. He needs to do his homework. We have enough lazy journalists in the corporate media.

Gladio type ops were run by the US through the CIA and NATO using ultra-right conservatives in Europe. SCIRI has been armed and employed (as police) by the US as death squads to eliminate Sunnis and Shia nationalists opposing the US. This is not even controversial. Iran may also be supporting SCIRI in some minor ways, but they hardly need to arm them, the US has already done that.

Bush's ?dea of supporting the troops is to arm their enemies so the US troops can better be butchered and justify Bush's further attacks on the "terrorists" he has armed.